South East - Spitewood Smash up - May 2026
Spitewood Smash-Up - Warhammer Underworlds Tournament Report.
The morning of the 9th of May had arrived, and it was time for the Agents of Sigmar’s latest Warhammer Underworlds tournament. Making the short journey to Redhill, Surrey, I readied myself for another full day of gaming.
I had brought along Gorlock Blackpowder and his Buccaneers, a warband I have been enjoying for months now. At present, I have played over 50 games with them using a large range of deck combinations.
My deck pairing, for this tournament, was Blazing Assault and Edge of the Knife.
My deck was as follows.
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The plan was to limit my opponent’s scoring while achieving my relatively straightforward objectives. I also wanted to reach any Aqua Ghyranis tokens I could, ideally camping Shreek or Mange on them. I have had plenty of practice with the Buccaneers, and I hoped I knew them well enough to focus more on counterplay than simply piloting my own game.
Game 1 v Kamandora's Blades with DS and WR
Gorlock then used 2 Swag counters to fire a range 5 Swag Mortar, causing 2 damage on Kamandora, who was deep in enemy territory. Then the Blades sent in Ghalista to try and finish off Kagey, but the attack missed. Blackpowder reloaded his blunderbuss with a handful of Swag and fired Swag Shrapnel into Ghalista. The shot missed, but the shrapnel injured Antro Krast and killed Kannat, the hound, whilst also inspiring the Buccaneers. Throkk then charged in and killed Mange.
By the end of round 1, I was trailing 8 to 4, but I had inspired my warband. Unfortunately, I had drawn into Usurper during the round but had been unable to finish off Kamandora. I decided to hold onto the card, but this was probably a mistake. I also had Calm Before the Storm, but I had been unable to score it as the Swag Shrapnel had left two injured fighters adjacent. However, I knew I would eventually be able to score it at some point.
In the second round, I drew Branching Fate, and this proved to be a trap card throughout the day, primarily due to attacking with Gorlock, who was rolling four dice for each attack, due to Keen Eye for melee and his inspired blunderbuss shot.
During the second round, David chose Kagey as the Worthy Skull and pushed Throkk, Antro Krast and Ghalista into adjacency. He then played Volcanic Eruptions, causing a point of damage on Gorlock, and asked me if I wanted to damage one of my other fighters. I declined. David then inspired his three fighters surrounding Kagey and stated I could have killed Kagey to prevent that from occurring. I, however, had plans for Kagey.
Kagey has the flying run mark, due to his grappling hook, and he swung over the Blades and charged onto the Aqua Ghyranis. Taking his shot at Kamandora, he missed, but he now posed a problem. Ignore him and I score a glory, or attack him and relieve some of the pressure from Gorlock. In the end, David chose to take out Kagey. This allowed Gorlock to survive a hit from Throkk without having to worry about follow up attacks. Gorlock then beat the axeman to death over the next two turns.
At the start of the third round, I had Gorlock and Shreek remaining, and David had Kamandora, Antro Krast and Ghalista. I charged forwards with Shreek and attacked Ghalista, killing him and finally scoring Branching Fate. Then Kamandora charged in and killed Shreek. Gorlock then charged forwards and crushed Kamandora.
For my final two activations, I could not charge Antro Krast to kill him, as I had charged to kill Kamandora, so instead I moved to within one hex of an edge hex in enemy territory. Antro Krast then moved next to me and played Confusion, bringing me back into neutral territory, two hexes from the edge hex in enemy territory but one hex from the edge hex in neutral territory. For my final turn, I killed Krast and then played Sidestep to move into the edge hex, stopping David from scoring Stay Close.
The game ended 15 to 15, with me winning on remaining Bounty.
Game 2 v Aaron's Heralds of Kurnoth with Emberstone Sentinel and Countdown to Cataclysm
I won the roll off and went first with Kagey. He charged onto the treasure token in neutral territory and attacked Cullen, rolling a double crit. Kagey injured Cullen, grabbed some Swag and scored both Aggressive Defender and Get Stuck In. Overall, a great start to the game.
Aaron’s first turn saw Lenwythe charge onto a treasure token followed by a shot at Pegz, which missed. In return, I charged with Pegz, injuring Lenwythe, driving her off the token, gaining more Swag and now scoring Critical Effort, which I had just drawn into. Ylarin then charged and attacked Pegz, who stood fast and remained blocking the treasure token.
With three Swag tokens, I now had all the ammunition needed to get Gorlock Blackpowder rolling along. For my third turn, I fired a Swag Mortar with 2 Swag tokens for a range 5 shot at Cullen, putting 2 more damage on the axe wielding centaur. I used the push ability from the shot to pull Kagey back away from neutral territory so that Cullen would have to charge out of friendly territory to attack. Aaron took the bait and charged with Cullen but missed. He was, however, now standing on the treasure token and all of his fighters were now charged out.
Before my final turn, I upgraded Blackpowder with Hidden Aid, in addition to Accurate, which he had received earlier in the game. I charged adjacent to Cullen and shot him at point blank range with a Swag Blast, using a third Swag token. This killed Cullen and inspired my warband. For Aaron's final turn, he moved Ylarin onto the other treasure token in the middle of neutral territory. I had the perfect first round, finishing off by scoring Calm Before the Storm.
In the second round, Aaron won the roll off and went first, choosing to place an inspired Ylarin on guard. I immediately upgraded Gorlock with Duelist and Mobbed before charging Ylarin. Now inspired, Gorlock charged Ylarin, rolling four dice with a reroll, hitting on anything but swords. Even with guard, Ylarin took 3 damage and Blackpowder used Duelist to reduce the damage from a reprisal attack. Ylarin then attacked and killed Mange.
Gorlock was now furious. I played Commanding Stride to move Gorlock next to Ylarin and then Scream of Anger. The Ogor captain attacked Ylarin again and killed him.
Aaron now only had Lenwythe left and was unable to do much else during the game. Midway through round 3, Shreek caught up with her and finished off the last of Kurnoth's Heralds.
The game ended 22 to 7 in my favour. My second win.
Game 3 v Stephen's Da' Kunnin' Krew with Blazing Assault and Countdown to Cataclysm
I started the game by charging forwards with Pegz in an attempt to land an attack on Krookgrin. However, in familiar style, the little gnoblar missed. Now adjacent to Krookgrin, Mannok charged in and killed him, inspiring both Mannok and Krookgrin. I was now the Underdog.
Mange then charged onto a treasure token to attack Gikkit. I hit, stealing two pieces of Swag, scored Aggressive Defender and inflicted a single point of damage on the grot. In the Power step, I delved the treasure token in an attempt to gain cover against Torka’s two dice attack. Torka charged, as expected, and attacked my now staggered Mange. However, the daring monkey defended with double crits.
My third activation saw me fire a Swag Mortar at Torka, inflicting 2 damage and driving the Orruk away from Mange, which would prevent him from inspiring. Stephen continued to attack, using the ranged attack from Shank to drive Mange out of cover.
For my final activation of the round, I charged onto the Aqua Ghyranis in my territory and fired my Swag Shrapnel at Mannok, which hit and drove him back. In addition, it injured Krookgrin. More importantly, having used my third Swag counter, the Buccaneers inspired. In the end phase, no injured fighters were adjacent, thanks to the drive back from the Swag Shrapnel, and I scored Calm Before the Storm.
I took the initiative in the second round and immediately charged with Shreek in an attempt to finish off Torka. Stephen had other ideas and played Dirty Tricks, causing me to miss. Torka attempted to retaliate and kill Shreek, but again I defended with double crits. I then quickly took out Torka with Mange.
My second activation saw me charge a flanked Torka with Mange, which killed the Orruk. I did not use Blackpowder for this attack, as I did not want to charge him too early or have him out of position. With the Bounty from Torka, I was now able to upgrade Gorlock with Keen Eye, Accurate and Hidden Aid, but Mannok, his potential target, had Utter Conviction and was in cover. However, I had Trial of the Tempered in hand, and I needed to injure Mannok to score the objective in the end phase. Charging in, my weight of dice overpowered Mannok’s save and he took 3 damage.
Unfortunately, Stephen continued to ignore Blackpowder, choosing instead to attack my minions. As a result, I was unable to score Trial of the Tempered. At the end of the round, I was trailing 11 to 12.
At the start of the third round, Mannok’s save was four dice. Having already injured him, I decided I was just going to start tearing the smaller fighters apart with Blackpowder, ignoring Mannok for now. As I was adjacent to Krookgrin, I killed him first.
Mannok then moved away from Blackpowder into my territory and killed Shreek, leaving me with just Blackpowder and Kagey. Blackpowder then charged deep into enemy territory and killed Shank.
At this point, there were only three fighters left on the board. Mannok, with a charge token, was now in my territory and no threat to Gorlock. Gorlock was deep in enemy territory, also with a charge token, and Kagey was ready for action. Stephen now focused.
In the Power Step, I played Commanding Stride followed by Scream of Anger to charge and kill Mannok. Using Scream of Anger also injured Blackpowder, tempering him. I then used Synchronised Effort to swap Blackpowder with Kagey, so that Kagey could run into enemy territory and score Risky Position.
The game ended 18 to 13 and was my third win of the day. (I have forgotten the score)
Game 4 v Silverstre's Knives of the Crone with Blazing Assault and Countdown to Cataclysm
By the fourth game, I was sitting in second place on the top table. My opponent, Silverstre, was piloting the Knives of the Crone with Blazing Assault and Countdown to Cataclysm.
The game started off in the usual fashion. Pegz charged forwards, missed and was killed in return, before Mange charged, hit and stole some Swag, only to be killed in short order. After Silverstre's first three turns, I had lost two minions, Pegz and Mange. He had scored four surges and inspired three of his fighters.
For my third turn, Gorlock loaded up his blunderbuss and put a Swag Mortar, with one Swag as I just needed the extra range, into Kaerna, the leader, causing two damage. For my fourth turn, Blackpowder charged onto my Aqua Ghyranis and used his Swag Shrapnel to fire into the crowd of aelves. The shot missed Kaerna, but the shrapnel injured both Tazari and Krieta. Importantly, this inspired the remaining Buccaneers.
The second round saw Kaerna charge Shreek and kill another minion. However, Gorlock followed her with a Commanding Stride and struck her down using his melee attack, boosted with Keen Eye and Accurate. I then further upgraded the Ogor with Great Strength and Hidden Aid. Krieta charged in to kill Kagey, leaving me with just one fighter remaining.
Blackpowder charged Krieta and quickly killed her, but was unable to get to Tazari, who had managed to land some damage on Gorlock. By the end of the second round, Gorlock had three wounds remaining, but he was inspired and fully upgraded. Unfortunately, I could not score Trial of the Tempered, which I had in hand, due to Azphel, the archer, being uninjured.
The third round saw Tazari move away from Gorlock, and there were now five hexes between the aelf and the ogor. I seized the opportunity to go into the lead and charged using Wings of War. Rolling four dice, needing hammers with Flanked and a reroll, I rolled only swords and surrounded. I had missed.
Silverstre then moved the archer away into my territory. For my second turn, Blackpowder murdered Tazari, but due to the missed attack, I did not have sufficient activations to move and then shoot the archer, so I could not score Trial of the Tempered. I used my final turns to focus on three objectives I could score for 3 glory.
I did not reach the last two objectives in my deck, Aggressive Defender and Get Stuck In.
However, it was too little, too late, and I lost 15 to 17.
Game 5 v Captain Molesby's Elathain's Soulraid with Blazing Assault and Pillage and Plunder
In the first round, I charged forward with the smaller fighters and started to put damage onto Fuirann, who used her warscroll Standfast quite early to stay on a treasure token. However, she still took damage, allowing me to gain some Swag. At the same time, Tammael and Fuirann attacked my minions with great success, whilst Spinefin and Duinclaw pushed onto the treasure tokens in their territory.
For my third turn, Gorlock fired his Swag Blast to try and injure Fuirann further, but the shot missed. Importantly, I had used some Swag in an effort to inspire and to push Mange onto a treasure token to prevent Strip the Realm. My fourth turn saw Blackpowder charge forward and crush Fuirann, gaining additional Swag. In the final power phase of the round, Elathain used Canny Sapper to enter my territory, ready for round 2.
The second round began and I used my Swag Shrapnel to try and injure Tammael, but more importantly to inspire. I injured him, but he immediately healed with a healing potion. Next, Elathain charged onto the Aqua Ghyranis token in my territory and killed Mange on the adjacent treasure token. Elathain then went on guard due to Wary Delver.
I upgraded Gorlock with Great Strength and charged onto the treasure token to attack Elathain. However, due to his guard, he saved the attack, but I still scored Aggressive Defender. Elathain hit Gorlock back and drove the Ogor away.
In the Power phase, I upgraded Gorlock with Keen Eye before playing Scream of Anger, tempering the Ogor. This allowed me to also play Opportunity Strikes. I hit Elathain with four successes, including two crits, preventing the aelf from defending even though he was on guard.
By now, Tammael was the only aelf left on the board, along with Duinclaw and Spinefin as support, but the sea creatures were still holding treasure tokens in their territory. Tammael tried to chip away at Blackpowder’s health, but I used a healing potion to ensure it would take three more attacks to finish the Ogor rather than two.
In the end phase of round 2, I scored Usurper and again had Trial of the Tempered in hand, but needed to start injuring Tammael and Duinclaw to score it.
In the third round, I charged and injured Tammael, leaving him vulnerable, although he had Great Fortitude. Tammael then charged onto the treasure token next to my Aqua Ghyranis and threw his harpoon at Gorlock, injuring him but not significantly.
Having injured Tammael, I now set about trying to harm Duinclaw by moving away from Tammael to score Get Stuck In, gain the bounty and allow me to score Trial of the Tempered. I charged forwards, killed the crab and moved onto the treasure token to prevent Strip the Realm. Spinefin then charged Gorlock and did nothing. I initially thought this was to try to drive me off the treasure token, but it allowed Tammael to move again.
Gorlock then killed the fish and scored Branching Fate before drawing into Critical Effort. Tammael then moved onto the Aqua Ghyranis.
In the end phase, I scored Trial of the Tempered but not Go All Out. Captain Moseby was not running Strip the Realm. If I had known, I could have moved onto the Aqua Ghyranis. He was, however, already on the token, and the game ended 19 to 20, resulting in another loss.
Conclusions
I had originally set out to win 3 out of the 5 games, which I achieved. However, as the day progressed, I had gained confidence and thought I had a chance of picking up a podium spot. Unfortunately, that was not to be, and I must say I was disappointed.
I finished 6th overall in what was a very competitive field, with over half of the players having held a Golden Ticket in the last two years.
The deck had worked well and my many, many games with Blackpowder and his Buccaneers have meant I have a very good understanding of the warband. Branching Fate feels like a trap card, but I am not sure if there is anything better. Usurper is not as hard to score as you might imagine, and Trial of the Tempered feels to Annihilation as Torn Landscape does to Strip the Realm.
As usual, I would like to thank the Agents of Sigmar, Pete and Robin, for organising and running the tournament. Thank you to all the players for playing in the spirit of the game and for the conversations I had throughout the day. The community spirit is excellent.
Finally, congratulations to Silverstre for winning the tournament with the Knives of the Crone, and to Captain Moseby for coming second with the Soul Raid. Both players now have Golden Tickets to attend Worlds at the end of the year in Barcelona. I wish them both good luck.
I believe the next tournament is in September. If you are interested in attending, leave me a comment and I will let you know more details.
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Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you soon in the Underworlds.
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